Shettima Weeps During Budget Presentation

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, Thursday wept during the presentation of the 2013 Appropriation Bill to the state House of Assembly.

The governor, who was speaking with emotion laden voice towards the end of his presentation said: “Surely Borno Shall Rise Again,” assuring the people that his government is determined to improve on their lives and end the insecurity problem, which had crippled economic and social activities.
Shettima said he was ‘deeply pained’ by the security challenges facing the state, but assured the people that the government was doing everything possible to improve on the lives of the people with the little resources at its disposal.
“It is my fervent prayer and hope that this problem will come to an end soon so that the people can enjoy the dividend of democracy,” he said.

He said the budget, which was tagged: ‘The Budget of Collective Renaissance,’ was aimed at kick starting the recovery, growth and development of all segments of the state through conscious, scientific and consultative approach to create new avenues for reviving the state’s economy.
“We shall explore more ways of generating revenue in order to effectively fund our projects and programmes that have direct impact on the lives of the people while maintaining prudence, accountability and transparency in the management of scarce resources,” Shettima said.
Meanwhile, Shettima, while presenting an appropriation bill of N184.3 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year, said the recurrent expenditure was N52.2 billion, while the capital expenditure was N132.1 billion.

The governor stated that the budget would be financed from a statutory allocation of N108.8 billion and from an Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N30.1 billion, while the capital receipts for the year was estimated at N132.1 billion.
Shettima said the budget was “aimed as kick starting the recovery, growth and development of all segments of the state through conscious, scientific and consultative approach to create new avenues for reviving the state’s economy especially by empowering our rural populace with many cottage industries to enhance their welfare with the underlying hope that in the long run, the state will regain peace, stability and security.”
He said: “We shall explore more ways of generating revenue in order to effectively fund our projects and programmes that have direct impact on the lives of the people while maintaining prudence, accountability and transparency in the management of scarce resources.”

The Ministry of Works and Transport got the highest share of N36.3 billion, Education has an allocation of N21.3 billion with the Ministry of Higher Education, which takes care of tertiary education appropriated N14 billion, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development got N15.2 billion, while the Health Ministry had N14.4 billion, among others.
Receiving the bill, the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Abdulkareem Lawan, promised to give the bill adequate attention and praised the effort of the governor towards revamping the state.

The speaker, who noted that the state with incidences of insecurity had gone through a lot in recent time, said the governor had given the needed leadership and financial discipline.

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